Skepchick Quickies, 10.15

Human testicles yield stem cells: “Scientists have derived potentially therapeutic stem cells from adult, human testiclesâ€”a development that may eventually make new medical treatments possible while avoiding moral dilemmas.” (Thanks to A Melina.)

The headline “Female-Dominated Societies Are Violent, Say Anthropologists” is sensationalist and irresponsible extrapolation of one scientific team’s speculation.
Having said that, there are plenty of female dominated species that carry out violent warfare with competing “tribes” or are vicious meat-eating predators, and there are others that don’t fight or eat meat. The reason anthropologists focus on chimps and bonobos is obviously because they are our closest relatives, about 4.5 million years of genetic separation. The problem is that in extrapolating the results of these primate studies to us, we ignore the effect of culture on human societies.

@James Fox:
My criticism was of the headline. Scientists did not write that headline. The scientists are doing their job by proposing theories. The way this is supposed to work is the theory must become accepted by peer review before journalists and bloggers pass it on as scientific fact.

I thought there were female-dominated societies among humans? I don’t remember the specifics off the top of my head, but I heard of this one African tribe where women did all the hunting and men just stuck around to put on complex plays. Have I been bamboozled?

I’ve got to say, I don’t have a lot of sympathy for a fashion marketer who can’t get a job. I’m ashamed to say it but these last few months I seem to be experiencing schadenfreude with alarming frequency.

I would be interested to see if there is a difference between the levels of violence in female dominated bonobo societies versus (what I am assuming are male dominated) regular chimp societies. Does anyone else get the feeling that it might be more useful to consider people as having masculine or feminine qualities, or some combination of the 2, based on their individual personalties and behaviour rather than their genitalia?

I’ve been a college skeptic for many years. I was a little disappointed that the article pretty much ended with a “yes.”

I think a more important question is whether college will benefit “you.” I knew all along I wasn’t going to end up a doctor or lawyer, or business manager. I never had much ambition, so college was only going to get me in debt.

I’m better off than most of my college graduate friends, even at almost-30, they’re all still in debt, and I’m debt-free. Of course, they all feel entitled, since they spent those years in college, so they still need their new cars and iPods. Oh well, I guess I’m the failure. :P